Hi there, this is my first blog! On this post I'm going to talk about myself.
I was born in Maracaibo - Venezuela and lived in Venezuela 'till the age of 8 when my father got transferred to Houston, Texas. We lived there for almost 3 years.
I consider myself very lucky because I could learn one of the most important languages at an early age. When I arrived to Houston I didn't have any English background, so my father motivated us to learn and adapt quickly by giving us - I got a brother who's 3 years younger - a dollar for each 10 new words we learned! On the other hand we had to go to afterschool lessons for English, all our normal classes were in English, so we had to do an extra effort to not only understand the subject, but the subject in a language you don't know. I remember that only the first year was hard, on my second year I even got a star as best student of the month!
When my father's assignment was finished nearly 3 years later, we went back to Venezuela. It wasn't that hard to re-adapt to it probably because we were very young, and had our big family there, all of our grandparents, uncles, cousins, and old friends! I finished all my secondary studies in Venezuela and started to study Commercial Administration at the University Rafael Belloso Chacin, in Maracaibo. I only did the first 2 years because my family was re-assigned but this time to The Netherlands! - and how could I miss this chance – and I was about to!!
First I was a bit worried I was going to find myself in a place like Heidi, but The Netherlands doesn't have hills nor mountains, but there are lots of cows and flowers! Actually the first year was a bit difficult to adapt, I'm sure it was because of my "rebel-age" I was going through like my mother calls it, and I was puzzled to go to The Netherlands and at the same time leave all my friends and social life back in Venezuela. So my first year was not that good, but I the same time I met a couple of friends that helped me out and convinced to continue to stay in NL. I went to the same college they did and I studied International Business Administration in Rotterdam Hogeschool. Since this was an International course, we had the chance to do some experience abroad and I found that very stimulating. So on my 4th semester I went back to Venezuela for a stage of 6 months, and on my 6th semester I went to Germany for a stage of 6 months. In the meantime my parents went back to Venezuela .
I had a wonderful time in Germany, to be more precisely I was in Munich. I was all alone, I didn’t know anyone on the place and I started to hangout with my colleagues. What I liked the most was the “relaxing” type of live I was having. After work I went or to the city center or to the English garden to have a walk! Once in a while I went with my buddies to Kunstpark Ost to party in place that has about 30 discos! Too bad it lasted 6 months! I had to get back to The Netherlands to finish my studies!
Since I was about to finish my studies, I was hoping to go to Italy. My father’s family is Italian and I wanted to learn more of the culture, so I decided that after completing my studies I was going to live there a couple of years. I managed to get a phone interview, and by the time I finished my studies I had to go there for the 2nd interview.
Unfortunately the 2nd interview was right after the 9-11 event, so the job got postponed, but I the same time I met the love of my life!
So here I am, it’s been 11 years since I’m in Italy, now I have a lovely family with an adorable 2 years old girl. The situation here in Italy is not very favorable work-wise, so we decided that it was time to move on! Our next destination will –hopefully- be Canada!
We are in the process of applying as immigrants, and as soon as I have news, I will post them!
My message today is: The begging is normally difficult, so hang on! Experience gives you the chance to make a better move!
